Jien was born into the Fujiwara family of
powerful aristocrats. He joined a Buddhist monastery of the
Tendai sect early in his life,
first taking the Buddhist name Dokaie, and later changing
it to Jien.

He began to study and write Japanese history,
his purpose being to "enlighten people who find it hard to
understand the vicissitudes of life". His masterpiece, completed c.
1220, was humbly entitled, Gukanshō, which translates as
Jottings of a Fool. In it he tried to analyze the facts of
Japanese history.

The Gukanshō held a mappo and therefore pessimistic view
of his age, The Feudal Period, and claimed that it was
a period of religious decline and saw the disintegration of
civilization. This is the viewpoint generally held today. Jien
claimed that changes in the feudal structure were necessary and
defended the shogun's claim of
power.

See also

References

Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). [ Jien (1221)],
Gukanshō; "The
Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō,' an
interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the
Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida.
Berkeley: University of California
Press. ISBN 0-520-03460-0